James J. Patterson Reads from MELANIE’S SONG on Latest LFTRR
The new mystery novel by ASP's Joanna Biggar is given the Patterson treatment in Episode 11 of Live from the Reading Room
“Melanie’s Song is an unputdownable, riveting feat of storytelling.”
Set in the era of Woodstock and Watergate, Melanie’s Song centers on a young woman’s mysterious disappearance, and on her friend’s determined search for her.
Melanie, who fled her marriage to a straight-laced classical musician in order to hitch-hike to Woodstock and San Francisco, was last seen at a commune in the California hills. Rumors abound: that she took up with a Black radical; that she had his child; that she and her lover, armed, ran a bank heist a la Patty Hearst; that she developed a mystical gift for spiritual healing; that she died in a possible accidental, possibly staged commune fire.
Trying to sift truth from invention pulls her friend, the young reporter, J.J., into the underbelly of the sexual and social revolutions of the 60s and early 70s, where she encounters corrupt cops, paranoid hippies, activists, mystics, drug-runners,and most astonishingly, Melanie’s own parents. Risking her job, her connections, her life, J.J. follows Melanie’s trail, determined to find out what happened to her once-compliant friend now turned, it seems, into a rebel angel.
Grace Cavalieri Interviews Poetry Superstar Ocean Vuong
Grace Cavalieri kicks off the new year and a new season of “The Poet and The Poem” with an interview of poetry superstar Ocean Vuong.
Katherine E. Young Describes Writing of Occasional Poem “Women’s Work” for Swearing-In of Libby Garvey
“What I found was: almost nothing. In fact, I discovered very few recent poems about public service or public servants in general, and no poems celebrating women in public service.”
Reuben Jackson Makes Banshee Press’ 2020 Best Short Readings List
Jackson’s poetry cycle, “Kelly’s Love for Waltzes” (published by Boston Review) is chosen by Jaydn Dewald for the year-end list.